AMES, Iowa — A homeless camp in the woods along Squaw Creek here where a murder suspect squatted was eerily quiet Tuesday, except for blowing leaves and garbage from campsites.

The reactions were not so quiet.

The home of Iowa State University typically is a place of altruistic attitudes toward the homeless. But after Monday's slaying of Celia Barquin Arozamena, some were scared.

Celia Barquin Arozamena(Photo: Special to the Register)

"I go walking with my friends. I don’t think I will do that anymore,” said Andrea Dahl, a junior at Iowa State University who lives in apartments next to the city-owned woods. “It makes me want to stay inside.”

Like others in Ames, she was conflicted. She is all for helping the homeless, “but then this happens.”

The homeless camp is well known to city officials and has been a site of complaints and a murder in 2008.

On Tuesday, the site included a clothesline strung between trees. Two circular camp areas centered by a fire pit were once tended with a rake, lying in the grass.

A 5-gallon bucket was turned upside down with a roll of toilet paper atop it. No one was there, but local law enforcement and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation swept the area surrounding the campsite with K-9 unit dogs.

Yards away, the brown water of Squaw Creek flowed past. Just up the opposite bank is Coldwater Links, where Arozamena, a champion golfer and Iowa State civil engineering student, was found stabbed to death as she was playing a round of golf.

Collin Daniel Richards, 22, who police say had no known address, was charged with killing her.

Collin Daniel Richards looks over his shoulder toward his lawyer, as he leaves the courtroom following his initial court appearance after being charged with first-degree murder in the death of Iowa State golfer Celia Barquin Arozamena, on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018, at the Story County Courthouse in Nevada.(Photo: Kelsey Kremer/The Register)

A resident of a home nearby said he has had no issues with the homeless population.

“They have a camp out there; however, the three to four of them who live out there generally don’t come out. They don’t interact with people. They just try to keep to themselves,” said Steven Bumpus, who lives in a home near a city community garden plot that sits at the entrance to the woods.

City of Ames policy prohibits camping on public property. The area was the subject of complaints within the last two years, said city spokeswoman Susan Gwiasda, and “there was a large cleanup.”

In 2008, Glenn Allen Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Daniel McGonigle after the two homeless men got in an argument near the camp.

Ames police officials say the area hasn't been one of widespread criminal activity, however.

Students, including Dahl, wore backpacks as they came and went from a series of apartment complexes that sit to the east of Jack Trice Stadium and a few hundred yards up the road from the thin strip of woods.

One apartment complex owner estimated that at times there were more than three-dozen people camped in the woods, but Paula Shriver saw them only when they came out to dig through the garbage bins for cans. She hadn’t seen them much lately.

“They are usually not aggressive like that, so I’m kind of surprised,” said Shriver, owner of Maple Wood Apartments.

When the leaves fall, the camps are visible and Shriver said the camp residents get creative, blocking their shelters.

"As far as what the city should do, it’s a tough question," she said. "I've been down here 20 years, and there hasn’t been a lot of problems. The residents don’t complain. They probably have the attitude that they need a place to live, too."

The responsibility lies with the person suspected of the crime, not the entire homeless population, said Lori Allen, director of Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization that provides services to disadvantaged Story County residents.

“There is no excuse for his actions. But our society would be better off to get these people services they need when they need it,” she said.

Budget cuts to social services for assistance with mental health care and financial assistance have made that endeavor a challenge, she said.

The lone homeless shelter for the general population in Ames, the nonprofit Emergency Residence Project, served 732 homeless people in 2017, but it has a capacity of only 21.

"If we had 200 beds, I know we could fill it," said executive director Carrie Moser. She said her organization hopes to launch a street outreach program in the coming months, but knows some homeless feel they are not suited to be around others.